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Willow Flycatcher | Empidonax traillii
Wilgenfeetiran | Mosquero saucero
The Willow Flycatcher is an Empidonax of waterside thickets in North America that winters in Central America and north-western South America. The Caribbean lies outside its normal migration route, and there are only a few records. Together with Alder Flycatcher Empidonax alnorum it was formerly treated as a single species, Traill's Flycatcher; the two can only be reliably separated in the field by song.
Voice
The song is a sneezed, two-part fitz-bew, the call a dry whit. In the region mainly the call is to be expected.
Recording: Greg Irving — CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · shortened to the first 60 s, mono · xeno-canto
Identification
13–15 cm, with a rather flat crown and a fairly long, broad bill with a pale lower mandible. The upperparts are brownish olive, the head hardly darker. The eye-ring is faint or absent. The wing bars are whitish to buff. The white throat contrasts with an olive-grey breast; the belly is whitish with a pale yellow wash. The sexes are alike.
Confusion species
Alder Flycatcher Empidonax alnorum is almost identical, on average slightly greener, with a slightly more distinct eye-ring; a silent bird is best recorded as Traill's Flycatcher. Acadian Flycatcher Empidonax virescens is greener, with a clearer eye-ring and a longer primary projection. Least Flycatcher Empidonax minimus is smaller, with a short bill and a distinct white eye-ring. Eastern Wood-Pewee Contopus virens has longer wings, no eye-ring and a darker breast.
Habitat
On migration dense thickets and young woodland near water: marsh edges, riverside growth, mangrove edges and rank vegetation in open farmland. It catches insects from a low, often exposed perch. On the breeding grounds it nests in an upright fork of a shrub.
Where the bird is most at home, classified by the vegetation types of the Caribbean.
Range and movements
A very rare passage migrant in Cuba; a few vagrant records are known from the Bahamas, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and Trinidad. Not recorded elsewhere in the region. Breeds in southern Canada and much of the United States and winters from Mexico through Central America to Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.
- Resident
- Winter visitor (c. Apr–Sep)
- Passage (Mar–Apr, Oct–Nov)
- dark = core range, pale = thinly spread
How and when to look
A brownish Empidonax with a weak eye-ring and a white throat in thickets near water, during migration in September and October or in April and May, may be this species or Alder Flycatcher. Without song or a sound recording, identification to species is not possible.
Conservation status
Not threatened. The south-western subspecies extimus is legally protected in the United States because of the loss of riparian vegetation.
Scientific name
Empidonax traillii | (Audubon, 1828)
Audubon described the species in 1828 as Muscicapa traillii; because it was later moved to another genus, the author and year stand in brackets. The genus Empidonax was introduced in 1855 by Cabanis. Empidonax is Greek, from empis 'gnat' and anax 'master': 'gnat-king', after its insect hunting. traillii honours the Scottish physician and zoologist Thomas Stewart Traill (1781–1862), a friend of Audubon. The specimen the first description was based on came from along the Arkansas River (USA).